Edutopia – Emilena Minero
“A number of math apps and online tools can help students develop the necessary foundational understanding of arithmetic operations they’ll need as a baseline for more challenging math problems later on, math teachers told us.” (more)
Edutopia – Ainissa Ramirez
“One of the best ways to share science from a historical point of view is to tell great science stories. Stories are sticky: The research shows that humans are hardwired for them, and that scaffolding information—by bundling scientific discoveries with a compelling narrative, for example—helps the brain incorporate new concepts. In this way, stories act like conveyor belts, making lessons more exciting and carrying crucial information along with them.” (more)
Forbes – Peg Tyre
“You know it’s not just you, right? Every parent of school-aged children in the U.S. is pretty much tearing out his and her hair, trying to figure out how to balance making a living with their district’s plans to reopen schools. Without some addition support, they know that kids who shine in the classroom are going to fall behind. And kids who don’t like school to start with? Ugh.” (more)
Moms – Leena Nasir
“If you’re not sure about whether or not your children will be going back to school this season, you’re certainly not alone. There hasn’t been much normalcy in our lives for the past several months, and the topic of returning to school has been topsy turvy. The back-and-forth debate between schools opening fully, moving into hybrid models, or a mixture of something in between has many moms questioning whether or not they should be starting to do any back-to-school shopping at all.” (more)
Edutopia – Lori Desautels
“Our brains do not like surprises—they love to make predictions by finding patterns that are familiar, and they learn from associations, connections, and patterned experiences. But as schools begin to resume in late summer, there will be many unfamiliar experiences: new routines, schedules, and guidelines. Especially for young students, it’s going to be challenging at best to adjust to wearing masks for extended periods.” (more)
Forbes – Paulina Karpis
“With university administrators at a loss over how to navigate a Covid-plagued fall semester, I’m not surprised that students are now protesting tuition, considering gap years and asking themselves: Is college worth it? I am surprised that it took a pandemic to get to this point. The truth is, Covid-19 didn’t break higher education. The model has been broken for a long, long time.” (more)
The Huffington Post – Caroline Bologna
“To help kids develop empathy, parents should emphasize emotional intelligence. Teach children to identify their feelings and process them. Create space for everyone in your family to feel comfortable expressing and discussing feelings in everyday life. Make EQ as much of a priority as IQ from an early age.” (more)
Education Next – Paul E. Peterson
“Numerous school districts are announcing plans to return to the online education they attempted last spring or to open their schools only with highly restrictive regulations on the teaching and learning experience. The primary consideration in making these decisions has to do with calculations as to the effect of school operations on the spread of Covid-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have put “a sharp focus on the necessity of in-person learning, outlining the social, emotional, and physical toll on students if they aren’t in the classroom,” but the agency “also emphasizes that there is a physical risk to returning.” Yet too little attention is being given to the educational price being asked of students, though many parents are beginning to think about exploring home schooling, micro-schools, tutors, and other alternatives.” (more)
Edutopia – Conor Williams
“So many adults, including teachers, joke about not being able to do simple math or not being a “science person” that many students enter STEM classrooms with negative views. This creates a fixed mindset as students believe they need certain natural abilities to be successful in math and science. As educators, we need to create opportunities for students to overcome these deeply planted negative views.” (more)
The 74 Million – Conor Williams
“Life comes at you fast in 2020. On July 8, the Trump administration waded into the debate over school reopening, threatening to pull federal funding from communities that chose not to reopen in-person schooling in the fall. By July 14, a poll from Axios-Ipsos showed that large majorities of Americans weren’t convinced that it’s safe to send their kids back to schools in person this fall. Then some of the country’s largest school districts came to the same conclusion: Los Angeles and San Diego (and other major school districts) announced last week that their schools would begin the 2020-21 school year online.” (more)
